Do We Really Need Another Bob Dylan Biography?

What could possibly justify another Bob Dylan biography? The American
troubadour has been endlessly chronicled in books and film. Now
Princeton professor and Dylan fanboy Sean Wilentz wants his say. In the
400-page love letter, Wilentz weaves Dylan's story into the cultural
history of music in America. Thus far, the book's been getting great
reviews, save for at The New York Times, which published early excerpts of the book.

Connects Dylan to His Environment, writes Allen Barra
at Truth Dig: "As someone who had perused much or most of the
literature Wilentz refers to, I can testify that he does the best job to
date of pulling together the cultural and political strands and weaving
them into the big picture."

Looks Past the Cryptic Lyrics to the Cultural Trends, writes Michael Roth
at The Washington Post: "The American historian Sean Wilentz begins his
assessment of Bob Dylan by linking him to the classical American
composer Aaron Copland, a signal that this book is not just another
biography of the chameleon folkie-rock-star-poet-troubadour. Wilentz
doesn't rehash reactions to Dylan going electric. Nor does 'Bob Dylan in
America' uncover a secret code to explain the famously cryptic lyrics
of a man who has been surprising and engaging audiences for more than 50
years. Rather, Wilentz has written a book at once deeply felt and
historically layered that shows how Dylan's artistic practice is
embedded in and responsive to powerful but subtle currents of American
culture."

It's Disjointed Dylan-Worship, writes a scathing Janet Maslin
at The New York Times: "What does 'Bob Dylan in America' intend to tell
us — about anything? Mr. Wilentz’s preface has to do a lot of
explaining about its arbitrary, nonchronological and proudly obscure
choices of subject matter. The preface also states ominously that what
follows will be a load of 'hints and provocations, written in the spirit
that holds hints, diffused clues, and indirections as the most we can
look forward to before returning to the work itself — to Dylan’s work
and to each of our own.' ...There is a place such hagiography usually
belongs: not on your bookshelf."

Puts Dylan in a New Setting, writes Tim Rutten
at The Los Angeles Times: "Dylan, of course, has been the subject of
other biographies and has published the first book in what he intends as
a multi-volume autobiography. Wilentz's book stands apart from these in
the lucidity of its prose, the rigor of its research and convincing
originality of the place he assigns his subject in the context of
American cultural history."

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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